Rants and raves about the mess of higher education in the United States.

Friday, October 12, 2018

College Credit to Harass Republicans?

By Professor Doom

What defines a
college course? In times past (and on a few legit campuses today), a college
course was put together by a scholar, possibly a team of scholars. The material
in the course was assembled with a specific purpose in mind, usually
preparation for even more advanced material.

Once the course
was put together, it was then reviewed by other scholars, to determine its
legitimacy. Despite the age of our higher education system, we still have new
courses appearing on a regular basis. I’ve done the “legitimate new course”
thing a few times, and it’s not easy…you only go through the trouble if you
honestly believe you’re adding value to education.

The system I’ve
lightly described above is somewhat antiquated, from a time when our
universities were run by scholars. Most of our educational institutions are
controlled now by plundering administrators. Under the “new system” education
is irrelevant, the only thing that matters to these guys is “will it sell?”
Thus we have courses on Lady Gaga, Game of Thrones and other topics that
honestly have minimal educational value at best.

Even if the
course is legitimate, academic freedom means the professor running the course
(not necessarily the designer of the course) has wide leeway in what he or she
will do as far as course material. This is why supposedly academic work like “don’t shave” can count
as much as a letter grade in a course.

I sneer too much
perhaps, as the “don’t shave” exercise does at least involve the student
writing about her experience of not having shaved armpits or whatever. I hardly
know what to make of this:

Senator Collins
is, of course, a Republican. I…do not understand how admin can tolerate this,
academic freedom notwithstanding. I don’t care if there’s some huge push
nowadays to get ever more violent against non-Democrats. That’s wrong,I do care, I find it vile and reprehensible.

But how is this
even remotely of educational value? How does acting like an ill-mannered thug
possibly prepare a student for more advanced academic work? Why isn’t this
question being asked?

Perhaps the
headline is sensationalizing things?

The
University of Southern Maine if offering credit hours to students if they
travel to Washington DC and harass Senator Susan Collins in the hallways and
elevator.

Students will receive one credit hour for their political action.

Wow, a full
credit hour for being a thug…so this qualifies as a college course. A typical
college degree is around 130 credit hours. We only have a mere 100 senators, so
at least you can’t get a whole degree in thuggery.

Of course, why
not extend the program to Congress? 200 credit hours is generally enough for a
Ph.D., so extending things would allow students to get doctorate degrees In
thuggery by harassing our duly elected representatives throughout Washington
DC.

However there’s a catch.
Only anti-Kavanaugh protesters will be rewarded the extra credit hour.
Pro-Kavanaugh students need not apply.

The University of Southern
Maine briefly offered students an accredited “pop up course” that consisted of
traveling to Washington, D.C. to protest Senator Susan Collins in an effort to
dissuade her from voting to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

Glen Cummings, the
president of the university, said Wednesday the course was posted
without his knowledge, and was immediately canceled when he learned of it. He
added that no university money had yet been spent to organize the Wednesday
night trip.

It’s good that
reason prevailed here, but the gentle reader should take heed: on this campus,
and likely many others, the Leftist lunacy is so dangerously close to taking
over that wildly, wildly inappropriate behavior is now being considered as
legitimate college material. Much as the Left is weaponizing baseless
allegations, they’re also trying to weaponize our higher education system.

The time honestly
draws near where an overhaul, if not outright tearing down, of many of our
campuses becomes the only reasonable thing to do.

Another short
post, as my head spins from another day of cancer surgery. I ask the reader to
take the time to consider the implications of the above “course,” especially
compared to what it used to take to create a college in the past.